Each chapter in Gary Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars is a month of Holling Hoodhood's seventh-grade year at Camillo Junior High. Quite a few things happen in Holling's world in this chapter.

April, of course, is spring, and this chapter recounts some of Holling's cross-country experiences. Holling is the only seventh-grader who makes the varisty team, and he is mercilessly tormented by the eighth grade boys. In one way this is a great motivation for him to keep practicing and running faster, but it is also quite annoying to him. In a meet at the end of the chapter, Holling beats all of his teammates to win a race after they pick on his friend Danny during the junior varsity race.

Mr. Guareschi, the principal, has unexpectedly "'received an administrative reassignment'" and has been replaced by an unlikely person--Mrs. Sidman.

In the real world (the world outside of junior high school), President Lyndon Johnson decides not to run for president, and Meryl Lee's father, Mr. Kowalski, is closing down his architecture firm and plans to move his family elsewhere.

Mrs. Baker has arranged for Hollling and two of his friends and their fathers to attend Opening Day at Yankee Stadium, but Mr. Hoodhood does not show up; when Holling calls, his father's secretary says what Holling already knows in his heart:

"No, he has an important business meeting with the Chamber of Commerce scheduled for four thirty. He wouldn't miss a Chamber of Commerce meeting for a baseball game."

Miss Baker takes Holling to the game instead, and Holling has the experience of a lifetime. He gets to play with some members of the team on the field and gets his hero's jacket.

Heather Hoodhood is forced to work in her father's architecture firm instead of doing what she would like to do with her life, which precipitates her running away.